By Juliet Ebirim

Saturday Vanguard has been presented with a ‘Media Partner of the Year Award’ for reporting issues affecting widows and women empowerment.

The award was presented by Advocacy for Widows Empowerment Foundation (ADWEF) at the 2014 edition of Charity for Widows Gruv and Awards held in Ikeja, Lagos recently.

Speaking at the event, the founder of the organisation, Willie Workman-Oga, said apart from celebrating the widows, the organisation deemed it necessary to honour the newspaper as well as other corporate organisations, and individuals who have supported the cause of widows in the society.

Workman-Oga explained that the oganisation would continue to affect the lives of widows positively and work with governments, agencies, traditional rulers and other international organizations that have passion for widows’ empowerment in order to put smiles on the faces of widows.

“Our vision is to see to the total liberation of widows from the ugly norms of deprivation of inheritance and abuse of their human rights to a place where they are encouraged, nurtured to discover and utilize their hidden entrepreneurial skills by becoming employers of labour.”

He said the foundation will cooperate with existing NGOs to educate men on the need to write their Wills early in life and also to make their spouses their next of kin in all insurance, employment and banking documents in order to ease the accessibility of funds and benefits for use of their family.